Faller 170900, Tunnel entrance using natural stone set

Work on the tunnel for my garden layout is progressing very slowly. After my first failure with wood I have decided to change to a lightweight concrete structure which seems to be holding well for now (see here). The time has come to work on the appearance and the next logical step for me was the creation of a nice tunnel entrance.

That's something I have not done before, so I was not sure where to start. Luckily I came across a Faller product which seemed to be exactly what I needed. Faller 170900 is a natural stone set for outdoor application. Let's give it a try!

The kit consists of several elements:

• a can of glue for outdoor application
• a bottle of surface sealing
• a bottle of impregnation
• six stone mats
• a brush
• a wood seam
• a user's guide

Content of the provided manual proves very useful. It allows an easy start even for people who use this kind of materials for the very first time. Reading it was a valuable lesson for me.

The stone mats come in two colors: light and dark. Three pieces of each are included. A single mat is 210 x 148 mm large.

OK, let's start the actual work on the tunnel entrance. Like many of my projects, this one also starts with an old pizza box. I used it to decide the shape of the entrance I wanted to build.

Once I was happy with the dimensions and the curves, I copied the pattern onto the two pieces of an insulation foam. This material is meant for covering the facades of real buildings, so it should do well outdoors...

Next I started cutting the shapes of the stones out of the provided mats. It was very easy to do just by using my hobby knife.

Once glued to the foam, they immediately started looking like a tunnel entrance. The result was nice right away. Unfortunately the glue turned out to be a solvent for the foam and damaged the surface significantly. But it did not really matter in the end.

Of course the outcome was not perfect. In particular - had I read the manual more carefully, I would have avoided the vertical gaps visible in the photo below. Still - the defects are barely visible from a distance.

I cut the remaining stone mats into rectangles and divided them into two groups, one for each entrance piece. That's when I realized I did not have enough material to cover the entire surface...

I had two choices at this point - either buy more mats, or improvise. I chose the latter and decided to go for an aged look. So my tunnel entrance will have only some of its rocks visible.

The rest will be covered with colorful ballast I normally use on my N scale layout. First I glued it to the foam and then secured it with the Faller surface sealing.

The last step was impregnation which I repeated three times. Faller 170903 included with the set was used for this. Here's the final result. Entrance #1...

...and entrance #2.

I was afraid the small ballast particles would not hold well. It seems however that spraying the sealing substance several times did the trick. Nothing fell off and I did not even have to clean the work area very much after I was done.

I'm pretty satisfied with the outcome. Not bad for a first try. If the whole thing holds well over time I'll be very, very happy. Faller 170900 is definitely a very good product that can help achieve great results easily. There's not a single thing here I could complain about...

The installation will have to wait until spring. But I can already see it's going to look great on my layout :)

Piko 37738 & 37739, G-Scale gondola cars

It's hard to believe how lucky I sometimes am when it comes to my purchases. When I first saw a Polish State Railway G-scale freight car in Piko's 2013 catalog, I knew I had to have it. But the price was a little too much for me. So I waited for some good promotion but... it never came. Instead the model was sold out and became almost unobtainable.

Months and months have passed since that time. I've decided to give this dream another go. So I typed the proper search keywords into Google and I started browsing the results of my query. Page after page I've reached an area of Internet where no man has gone before. And then... I found it. My Polish State Railway gondola car not only was available but it was discounted as well!

So instead of one model, I bought two. Two for a price of one. Piko 37738 & Piko 37739.

The products come in the usual Piko packaging. Despite having spent a long time on the store shelves, they look perfect. I'm happy already!

The cars are identical, except for the paint job. And the content of the boxes is almost the same, too.

The only difference is in the amount of yellow anchors provided with the sets. One model comes with four pieces, and the other one with six. It's interesting but not really important, since there are only four slots for those anyway.

Ten minutes later the extra parts are installed. They're a tight fit, so I was forced to use a hammer with a rubber head. But here it is. This is what Piko 37739 looks like:

And here's Piko 37738:

Below you'll find even more photos of both cars next to each other.


The models are "nothing special", they're just regular gondola cars after all. There's however nothing bad about them, either. They provide a decent amount of details, they're nicely painted and they're exactly what I expected them to be.

I'm of course very happy to finally own a Polish railway model in G-scale. Those are very rare and I was really lucky to get one. I still think the original price was too high, so I'm extremely pleased I was able to find them significantly discounted. Another good deal on my side :)

Tomix 6425, N-Scale track cleaning car

During my "adventures" with the Brawa locomotive it has been suggested to me that my N-scale layout track was dirty. Of course it was not but I've come up with a plan to do something about this potential issue anyway. I've decided to purchase a cleaning car which I was considering for some time now. It's manufactured by a Japanese company called Tomix and it's available in various versions. My model is blue and its catalog number is 6425.

It's not just a cleaning car but an entire system. The set comes with various cleaning discs: vacuum type, soft/wet type and sharp/dry type. The discs are interchangeable and only one is installed under the car at a time. By attaching a specific disc type, the user chooses the actual cleaning mode.

The other interesting element of the set is a bag containing four small parts. Those tiny pieces include:

• a brush attachment for brooming the tracks
• a sponge attachment for applying the cleaning fluid
• a disc changing tool
• a nozzle which does not fit anywhere :)

I've also ordered some extra accessories that work with the car.

Tomix 6423 is a set of additional cleaning discs with cleaning pads. Tomix 6424 contains extra cleaning pads only (without discs). And Tomix 6402 is a track cleaning fluid.

But let's go back to the cleaning car. It comes with a short but nice manual featuring a lot of pictures. Unfortunately the delivered version is available in Japanese only. German and English versions can be found on-line, since the Tomix car is also sold by Faller and Atlas.

The manual lists the three modes of cleaning the model offers:

• vacuum cleaning - where small particles of dust are being sucked away without touching the track
• wet cleaning - using the special fluid and a rotating soft pad to gently wipe the rail track
• dry cleaning - which uses a sandpaper-like pad to remove the most problematic dirt

This is what the model looks like. A little bit futuristic, isn't it?

One end of the car features an On/Off switch as well as a tank for the cleaning juice.

The other end offers an optional power socket. The car will normally pick up the current from the track, but if it is really dirty... maybe that socket becomes useful?

The center of the car is just an empty container that gets filled with the dirt collected in the vacuum cleaning mode.

A look under the car reveals a thin rod the discs get attached to. The rod is an extension of a small engine that is hidden inside the model. The motor makes the cleaning discs spin around during the cleaning process.

A very important information about the cleaning car is that it is not motorized. Its internal engine is used only for the cleaning process, and does not make the model move. So you either have to pull it with a locomotive, or push it with your finger.

I know from the Internet that the car is not really DCC-compatible. In particular the motor tends to burn out easily in digital setups, most probably due to the input voltage being too high. The manual clearly states 12V DC requirement. That's a bummer, since even my Trix analog control set can deliver more than that. I guess, I will have to be careful...

Test #1 - vacuum cleaning mode. My layout was not really dirty, so I just spilled some fine ballast over the track. The left photo shows the area before the cleaning, and the right photo shows the same place after. The vacuum cleaning clearly worked and the car was able to suck in even relatively heavy ballast particles. I'm pretty sure it would pick up regular dust very easily.

The material ended up in the chamber inside the car.

During another run it even picked up a pretty large piece of a paper towel.

Test #2 - wet cleaning mode. Again the left and the right pictures show the same piece of track before and after the procedure. Not much difference there, right? Like I said - my layout was never really dirty :)

The results of cleaning were however noticeable. I've exercised the least used piece of my layout for the test and in the beginning the car did have obvious issues getting the power from the track. After a few runs, it started working perfectly, so the rails got cleaner, even though it's difficult to see it in the pictures.

And of course there's another proof. The cleaning pad definitely gathered some dirt which can be seen in the photo below.

Test #3 - dry cleaning mode. Now the comparison photos do show some difference indeed. The sandpaper discs really touched the track. Unfortunately it does not really look good at all. The rails are clearly "skinned" and the result is something I would call a damage.

Just to be clear - my test was a rather lengthy one. So if you take a look at the disc after I applied it to the track, you will see it has been worn out. Maybe if I ran it just a single time, the effects would be less scary...

But on the other hand, I did find places on my layout where the disc spun for just a short moment. And yes, I would still call that a damage. The scratches are well visible in the photo below.

I have two extra observations after my testing...

First - in the modes where the pads actually touch the track, the model has some issues passing over switches and re-railers. And it also introduces a significant drag. Therefore the usage of the cleaning car will always require some extra attention from the operator. It needs just the right amount of pulling power, so that it does not get stuck on the obstacles but does not derail, either.

Second - the voltage required to run the engine is not just 12V. It's variable depending on what the car is doing at the moment. That discovery affects my thinking about making the model DCC-compatible. I thought I could just add some simple circuitry to convert the DCC voltage to a constant 10-12V DC. This will not be the case. I can see now I need to retain control over the cleaning motor's power. So a DCC decoder installation is a must.

Summary

Well, the model definitely works and can be used for keeping an N-scale track clean. I think the vacuum cleaning mode is somehow useful. The wet cleaning seems like the best choice for frequent use. And the dry cleaning is a dangerous mode I will never use again.

The cheapest method to buy the model is to get it directly from Japan. I strongly suggest going to the Japan Plaza Ebay store for a really good price. I've been shopping there for quite some time now and have always had a very good experience...

My next step? DCC decoder installation inside the cleaning car. Hopefully coming very soon...